London Bus liveries

[Deleted]

What made TFL decide to repaint most buses painted with certain skirts, such as the London united and Metroline liveries? And why have a 100% red rule, even if companies such as London General, Central and some Metroline buses are still painted in their original colours? Why do some companies have their buses still painted in the original colours if a 100% red rule has been created

[snoggle]

Mar 24, 2015 17:18:11 GMT @aechha1 said:

What made TFL decide to repaint most buses painted with certain skirts, such as the London united and Metroline liveries? And why have a 100% red rule, even if companies such as London General, Central and some Metroline buses are still painted in their original colours? Why do some companies have their buses still painted in the original colours if a 100% red rule has been created

A political decision was taken to have "majority red" buses but this allowed skirts and other things to vary between operators. Later there has been a further policy change either from City Hall or just by TfL (don't know which) to tighten the livery spec to remove operator variations and to reduce the size of operator names / logos on the vehicles. Some operators abandoned their colour variations to save money on paint and repairs - I believe Metroline did this.

The reason why you see a variety of styles is simply that it is not good value for money to repaint buses just for the sake of it. It should be done either as part of a planned refurb or in line with company policy on vehicle maintenance / condition. This latter point varies considerably between operators. Stagecoach are renowned in London for repainting their buses fairly frequently while other operators, who shall remain nameless, appear to have forgotten where the paint is kept.

Personally I had no issue with the 1990s multiple colour liveries but that's because I've always been used to buses in different colours in one area. I can completely understand why people who are from London and have only know "London Transport" red would dislike the "multi coloured bus shop" we had in the 1990s. However I do think unrelieved red is really a very poor choice and it can dull and look very poor if not looked after properly. You only need to see how a bit of white relief or even something like black window surrounds and grey skirt and yellow coachlining (used by different operators in different ways) can make a vast difference.